How To Get 40 Burger King Chicken Nuggets For $5
On October 7, Burger King's social media team took to Twitter to ask, "you have $5. what are you getting for dinner and why is it 40 chicken nuggets?" Among the various replies, two seemed to strike the point the team were trying to make. The first, @itsMyre, stated, "you KNOW its the $4 double cheeseburger meal coupon + $1 for 8 spicy nuggets." The team agreed that this was an answer. @Nightwing55251's emoji-laden explanation — "With $5 all you have to do is download the BK app. Get the $3 double whopper the $1 shake and the $1 Large fries. You get a better deal" — was more on the message, as evidenced by the team's reaction: "say it louder for the people in the back." Burger King's point? Promoting its app.
In 2018, Burger King launched "the official BURGER KING® app" on Apple's app store. Its listed features included access to mobile-only coupons, mobile ordering, a store locator, and a menu. The app's main appeal is the bounty of savings it offers. The Street notes that the deals it provides might be a free Whopper with a purchased Whopper, a $5 Whopper meal, and other such things, which in their view, gives it the edge over McDonald's similar savings app. They also note that on average, Burger King costs more than McDonald's, so in the end, you pay about the same.
A whopper of an app
Like every company with an app, Burger King weaponizes it to gain a better grasp over its customer base. As Allison Robicelli wrote last month in a piece covering Burger King's $2 snack box deal for The Takeout, the purpose of these app-only deals is to gain more information about you: "(I)t knows what foods you like, how often you order, what deals and promotions catch your eye." It then shares the same information with its associate companies, like Tim Hortons, to keep good deals sliding your way. It's not the end of the world. A good deal is a good deal. It is, however, something worth being aware of.
To give credit where it's due, fast-food giant Burger King at least has a sense of humor, a fact admitted by a disinterested writer for Inc. Specifically, they used their privacy invasion for good effect in their 2018 Whopper Detour campaign. Contagious describes how Burger King geofenced McDonald's to activate a promotion for a one penny Whopper whenever a person with their app approached 600 feet of a McDonald's. This, as you might imagine, resulted in over a million downloads, millions saved from marketing, and continued use of the app even after the promotion campaign ended. Fair play to you, Burger King.
Perhaps Burger King's Twitter musings about chicken nuggets fall into a similar vein. If so, fair play again. It has almost certainly peaked the interest of potential consumers.